Thursday, November 5, 2009

I went to a nutriceutical presentation at the behest of a friend last night. It looks to me a good product with, perhaps, a huge potential for health and curative benefits. The friendly people who were there to present the product and ideas were certainly sold on the product, and while I was aware of the (in Utah) inevitability of some connection to multi-level marketing, I went to the presentation to find out a little more about the contents of the wee can. Again, I came away duly impressed with the quality and potential of the product, but I was surprisingly fascinated with watching the salespeople switch between heartfelt and amazing testimonials about the merchandise and ‘the tremendous and ground-level opportunity for growth and income potential in this group’.
In this case, it’s hard to not come away with some amount of interest in distributing the stuff, if for nothing else the ingredients and quality thereof. I’ll probably give it a try even though it’s fairly expensive to see if it can help a few of the things I’m trying to fix or stave off in the future. But Get Out There and Hustle It? Nah.
I have a deep and abiding desire to not sell things. I know all of the arguments of the salesman: “You sell yourself to your boss every day!” or “You might as well sell something you believe in to people you care about rather than being poor and miserable the rest of your life, think about the number of people you could help if you just had some more money from selling (insert product or service here).” Then there’re those more personally directed, “You sell yourself and English to your students every day!” EVERYONE’S a salesman, no? It doesn’t really work for me.
The money from this fine medicine will circulate many times over after the sale is completed. The financial pyramid will ascend to the sky (or at least to the peak of the mansion on the roof of some numbers-oriented person in Utah Valley) and the money will swirl and work its transformative magic, but I really don’t see much in the way of real benefit in it for me. We have what we have and will rely on my own lame ability to provide a teacher’s service or product to those who can see the merits of my person or manner in exchange for paltry sums and lame excuses for the lack of more offered. If I have something that I’ve specifically done or made, I might sell that, but something that seventy other people ‘above’ me have sold and will profit from through a well-oiled, slippery multi-level hype machine? I just can’t bring myself to get enthusiastic about it, no matter how truly quality the people making the pitch are.
Perhaps I’ll miss the boat on this again. I’ve done that many times over for varying reasons. At least I’ll survive a little longer with my ideals and principals intact, and I’ll live another day to search out that little thing that might connect me more closely with God and others who might be willing to cooperate in making my family and the community more livable and perhaps more happy from day to day.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

There's gotta be a place to get the same thing without the multi-level load.

(I don't know if Utah sprouts more of these organizations than anywhere else, but the populace surely provides some of the most fertile ground, it seems.)

pop

Lost Coyote said...

Don't worry about missing the boat, man, most of the boats I get on sink...I'm scared of boats...

Ruahines said...

Kia ora Adam.
If the structure of the organization and the prospect of making money is more important than the product itself, if the hair on the back of your neck stands up. Walk away.

Anonymous said...

yeah what you said. with relish!
mfb

adam said...

Yeah, dad. This seems fertile ground for multilevel marketing. To say the least...

adam said...

Ho Ryan-
I think we oughta take some o' these people
And put 'em on a boat, send 'em up to Bear Mountain...
For a picnic.

adam said...

Great to have you reading, too, MFB! Thanks for the second.

adam said...

Howdy, Robb-
Yeah, I'm a walking man, even if i don't walk often enough.
I think I naturally sort of run from things that put money first, second or third in order of perspective. We'll see if this philosophy bears out well in the end.
Great to have you around, dear man.